RNC chairman alleges rampant voter fraud

Madison -- The chairman of the Republican National Committee said Wednesday GOP candidates have to perform 1 or 2 percentage points better than they otherwise would to overcome voter fraud -- claiming that voter fraud is far more pervasive than what official reports have shown.

About 2.1 million votes were cast in the 2010 race for governor, and 1 to 2 percent would equate to 21,000 to 42,000 votes. Some law enforcement officials have raised concerns about isolated incidents of voter fraud, but never suggested it approached a scale like that.

“I’m always concerned about voter fraud, you know, being from Kenosha, and quite frankly having lived through seeing some of it happen,” said Reince Priebus, the RNC chairman and former state Republican Party chairman. “Certainly in Milwaukee we have seen some of it and I think it’s been documented. Any notion that’s not the case, it certainly is in Wisconsin. I’m always concerned about it which is why I think we need to do a point or two better than where we think we need to be to overcome it.”

Richard Saks, an attorney who has successfully challenged Wisconsin’s new voter ID law, said Priebus can’t back up that claim.

He noted that a 2008 investigation in Milwaukee County by Democratic District Attorney John Chisholm and Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen resulted in 20 prosecutions, mostly for voting by felons who were not qualified to vote.

“The notion there’s any kind of large scale fraud is simply not borne out by the facts,” Saks said. “It’s a scare tactic that’s used … to try to claim that primarily vulnerable people shouldn’t have a full opportunity to vote.”

Lester Pines, an attorney involved in a separate legal challenge to the voter ID law, also denounced Priebus' comments, saying they were baseless.

"His statement that Republicans need to outperform Democrats by one to two percent to account for vote fraud is an absolute, total 100% lie," Pines said. "It is a fantasy. And Reince Priebus and his ilk are saying this and they’re saying it over and over and over because they’re using the well known propaganda tool called the big lie. If you say it enough times, people will believe it. There’s no other way to characterize this except that Reince Priebus is a liar."

Priebus made his comments ahead of Tuesday’s recall election for GOP Gov. Scott Walker, who faces Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Pines charged that Priebus was making the allegations about voter fraud because he is worried Walker will lose and he is trying to find a way to explain why.

Republicans last year approved a requirement that voters show photo ID at the polls, but two Dane County judges have blocked it. One case remains before the trial court and the other is before a state appeals court.

The state Supreme Court is expected to ultimately rule on the cases, but that may be a year or more from now.

During a campaign stop in Manitowoc, Walker said he did not know how extensive voter fraud is, but called it unfortunate that the voter ID law is not in place for the recall election. Walker said he thought that the changes in the law would have provided more certainty in the results.

“We have seen problems in the past in Wisconsin,” Walker said. “I don’t know what percentage to predict on that. I hope it’s none. I hope there is none. But certainly we’re cautious and we want to make sure there are enough volunteers out there.”

Mike Tate, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said Priebus' comments were a sign Republicans are worried Walker will lose.

"This is what they always pull out when they think they're going to lose an election," he said. "They try to scare people about voter fraud. It is an out and out lie. There is no documented cases of voting fraud."

Lee Bergquist and Bill Glauber of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Bergquist reported from Manitowoc and Glauber from Racine.

About Patrick Marley

Patrick Marley covers state government and state politics. He is the author, with Journal Sentinel reporter Jason Stein, of "More Than They Bargained For: Scott Walker, Unions and the Fight for Wisconsin.”